To me, if a company pisses you off, you leave. I was watching my YouTube channels yesterday and came across a massive outcry of Warhammer 40K players moaning that their entire armies, ones they paid good money for, painted, and played with for years, were banned from official and store play. You buy into that brand, and they sell you things they then get to take away, which is what that company does; this is not new.
Then I see people saying, "Well, we will just go to One Page Rules!"
We will!
I warn you!
See my foot out the door?!
I did not know this existed. An open, 3D-printing-friendly, DIY tabletop wargame community that looks and feels like the classic D6 wargame systems played in hobby shops? You can bring in any model, even 30-year-old plastic Heroquest figures, and have a good time?
And my mind instantly clicked into the mode, "Why aren't you supporting this?"
This can't be used as a threat to make a bad-behaving company do good since it will never work. Walk away en mass like the OSR and do your own damn thing.
Gaming YouTube loves complaining. D&D YouTube is the same thing. They take abuse from billion-dollar companies, complain, and monetize that into cash. They take that cash, buy more of the same, support the abusers, and repeat the cycle. And they sucker you into watching. It is too much fun to see people bitching about hobbies.
But there comes a point when you realize you have wasted too much of your money and too much of your life you will never get back on stupid outrage and supporting companies that bleed you dry.
Great, supportive, community alternatives exist like One Page Rules.
They give away 3D-printer STL files! If you had a 3D printer, you could join the fun and print your armies! That is cool, and it is community-supportive! You could even do your own thing, make your own 3D models, print your own armies to paint, and give them stats in the game. You can even sell or give away your STL files.
Ever want a reason to get into 3D printing?
Here is your chance. Spend your money on that instead of 50-dollar blister packs.
And your 3D prints can be turned into cash.
Could I make a bunch of cool, dirty-dog, 3D-printed motorcycle bikers, give them tiny plastic guns and armor, and play a war game with others? Yes. No company tells me, "Your models aren't supported; sorry, you can't play with other people."
Some companies exist to abuse people, and some people are happy to give them all their money.
The OSR is a beautiful place.
Open Gaming is also fantastic.
Stop accepting the abuse, take your toys, save your money, and walk away. Don't sign up for subscription services to play your game.
And stop buying into this dumb, moronic, YouTube outrage clickbait. All you are doing is supporting the abusers and those who profit from them. Play OPR or OSR, put those games on YouTube, ignore the abusive and clickbait side of the hobby, and be a positive force in the world.
But I get it—there is no money in doing OPR YouTube! Warhammer is where the money is! YouTubers just flock to where the views are. Well, that is also dangerous. It breeds negativity and hate and supports an abusive cycle that becomes impossible to break away from. The major gaming communities on YouTube, Magic the Gathering, Warhammer, and D&D are becoming so toxic that the entire platform quickly becomes a worthless hate-fest of anger and negativity.
I am unsubbing from 5E channels and moving to better hobbies. The same is happening to my Warhammer and MtG subscriptions. The negativity is dumb and a waste of time. YouTube is killing tabletop hobbies.
And there are better, more positive hobbies than the ones talked about there.
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